Power Supply Design Considerations

Abstract

Power supply design is perhaps the most challenging aspect of the entire process of controlling noise and radiation in high-speed DSP design. This is largely because of the complexity of the dynamic load switching conditions. These include the DSP going into or out of low power modes, excessive in-rush current due to bus contention and charging decoupling capacitors, large voltage droop due to inadequate decoupling and layout, oscillations that overload the linear regulator output, and high current switching noise generated by switching voltage regulators. A clean and stable power supply design is required for all DSP systems to guarantee system stability. This chapter outlines the importance of proper power supply design and the methods to minimize unwanted noise.